Port Authority
by kwipinky
Summary: Xena repays a childhood debt.


The battle over, the conqueror told her men to celebrate, enjoy their captured spoils

Disclaimer: Xena Warrior Princess, Gabrielle, Eve and Hope, do _not_ belong to me. They're RENPIC's. I guess, though I don't really know and that's what the end credits say. I won't make any dollars, dinars, drachmas, lira, (or insert your monetary unit) on this. I didn't write this for money. So, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know: kwp75@aol.com Timeline: This story occurs after an attack on a warlord, but before the Warrior Princess started working for the Greater Good.

Sex: Nope

Spoiler: None

Violence: Implied

  
  
  


  
Port Authority

By Kwipinky

The battle over, Xena, the Warrior Princess, Destroyer of Nations stood proudly on top of a captured wagon of loot. 

"Men, destroyers of villages, make a night of it. Eat, drink, and be harsh. Tonight, enjoy your spoils and the port. But the celebration stops tomorrow at dawn, and we will take Corinth."

"Xena! Xena! Xena!" The men applauded her allowance of a celebration. They roared appreciation of their brief break. 

Xena raised her gold cup and took a long steady drink, of water, and tossed the chalice aside. She did not want to be a victim of a drunken stupor; she was much too close to conquering Greece. She had accomplished much since she began her path of death, and she rarely celebrated. Xena traveled from bonfire to bonfire and listened to outrageous tales of her inhumanity and when noticed she smirked evilly for emphasis. 

Half a candlemark later she left to find respite away from the celebration, so she set out into a copse of trees located near the town of Poteidaia. Her army captured what Xena called idiot slavers; she took great pride in humiliating their leader and took his army and cargo. Disgusted with his groveling attitude she sent him walking, naked and weaponless. She released his captives and told them where he was headed. Xena was _not_ a slaver of women and children. But somehow, she sensed she would meet him again, and looked forward to a reunion.

In the woods, Xena spotted a large tree and it was very similar to one she and Lyceus played and slept in as children. She climbed the maple tree and rested in a crook with the leaves thick in the limbs. Peace, she sighed, rarely enough did she feel so, so, nostalgic?

Four boys ran through the woods with a wineskin in their hands.   
Xena remembered playing with wineskins and pretending to be drunken warriors with her brothers, but that was a lifetime ago. She shook her head to shut out a particular memory, and a brief time later slept attentively. A trick she'd learned from her brother too, awakened by the rushing feet she saw three boys run out. 

Weren't there four of them? She wondered. Xena followed them through the treetops for a moment to determine what had scared them so thoroughly. 

The boys stopped running and bent holding their sides. Sucking in great gulps of air, they began to argue.

"We can't tell anyone!" a blonde headed boy of about twelve seasons said to a red headed youth about the same age. 

"He'll die!" his brunette companion screamed.

"Shut up! The whole village will hear us! He's already dead, and you killed him!" the blonde boy accused the redhead.

"No! I didn't! He isn't dead! He is asleep! Besides! You stole the port!" red defended himself.

"I'm not taking' any blame!" blonde yelled and shoved his companion to the ground.

"What now?" the smallest of the three, a brunette boy asked with a shaking voice. Torn, he turned to head back in the direction they'd left and pointed. "We can't leave him there!"

"I gotta go home!" blonde said and ran out of the woods.

"Wait!" brunette pleaded, desperation clutched at his words. "We can't leave him! Please!"

"We must! Your father will kill you, and so will mine! We're going home now!" red said and pulled the brunette, struggling behind him, out of the woods. 

Xena watched until they disappeared, and then, she listened. The sound she'd heard was definitely human. She slid her lithe body down the tree; took a step, listened, another step, and the ground squished in revolt with each footfall. 

A soft moan echoed in the thick musty air, and she stooped to get a better look ahead. Stock still she listened and determined the moaning sound's location. She rocketed herself forward landing beside a small form lying in a bog. 

She knelt and checked for a pulse. It was there, but very weak, a second later and the boy emptied his stomach on her boots. She turned him to the side and made sure his airway remained clear. The strong stench of port assaulted her senses and she turned her head to find some fresh air.

She picked the child from the ground and headed into the clearing where the boys had a small fire and where they had shared the wine earlier. 

The boy, still unconscious, vomited profusely. He moaned with his wide opened-eyes fixed on nothing. She found some charcoal from their dead campfire and mixed it with some herbs she'd found nearby. The herbs would serve as a vomiting and diluting agent and the charcoal would absorb any port still in his small stomach. 

She'd used the treatment before in the tavern in Amphipolis. She made a tube from a reed shoot, and then she poured the mixture down the child's throat. She worked with him constantly rousing, jostling and without talking she made progress in sobering the child up. She cleared the poison from his body. 

After a while she detected his pulse becoming stronger and sat back on her haunches and surveyed her surrounding. She brushed his face and watched him sleeping. He would be fine. But, he needed to be warm and she looked around after hearing voices to get a fix on where to place the child so he could be found easily when the villagers searched. Xena cocked her head after she heard the voices coming closer. She turned the child on his side and climbed a large tree and waited.

"Perdicus!" The searchers called for the boy. "Perdicus!"

"Over here! I've got him." A man called out.

Xena made sure they found the boy and watched as they took his small form out of the woods. She sat down and sighed. 

She remembered similar event with her younger brother. Xena had stolen some port from her mother's tavern. Lyceus had challenged her to steal the wine, and then to drink more than he did. He gulped the sweet liquid and he passed out when the alcohol overcame him, just as the boy had. The warrior remembered how frightened she felt when Lyceus fell over. The memory brought back the sheer horror that gripped her as she tried to wake her brother. Fear gripped her heart as she checked for his pulse and screamed his name. When she failed to revive him, she dropped to her knees and sobbed like a babe. She thought she'd lost him. 

Suddenly, a woman appeared and saved him. A woman she'd never seen before, or since. The woman foretold Xena she would one day do the same for a child.

Xena shook her head. Foolish woman didn't know a thing. She made was sure she was alone and exited the woods. A quarter candlemark later, at dawn, she headed for her destiny at Corinth and left the town and the memory behind.

~~the end~~


End file.
